Post by Diarist on Feb 21, 2017 21:39:10 GMT 1
As usual I ordered a steak. John and I were sharing a bottle of Beaujolais. "I'm glad that Motta is here. Good move, Winston."
"I remembered you wishing he could be present but you didn't want to have the conference in Bern so I invited him here. He's right about being too ambitious."
"If you have a less ambitious way of taming Germany I'm open for ideas. Anyway I'm not expecting a full agreement. A Memorandum of Intent (MOI) would suffice then we set up workgroups."
"You make it sound so simple, Bob,"
"Tomorrow I shall be brought back to reality. Did I mention that I received my twin-engine licence this morning?" I explained what happened.
"Definitely abuse of power," AVM Freeman commented.
"TRADOC has been good to the 24th and vice versa." Winston was indicating that I look behind me. Wilhelm Canaris was walking towards our table. I stood up to greet him. We exchanged a few greetings and I invited him to join us. "I believe you know everyone apart from AVM Wilfrid Freeman. He heads my Aviation Section. Are you allowed to talk to us?"
"That's why we are here, to talk. Keitel won't like it but I don't care."
"Keitel is here? Leading the delegation?"
"Ja. He is Chef des Wehrmachtamts. Glad you people saw the plan yesterday. Von Manstein's plan was so good that for a moment I thought it might succeed."
"The French Intelligence noticed very early that something was strange. Passengers at Saarbrücken were being told that no trains would be arriving or leaving yesterday evening. If he had used trains from outside the zone it may have succeeded."
"We didn't want to succeed. At first we cursed von Manstein until he started to point out the flaws in the plan."
Wilfrid Freeman asked, "Admiral, are you saying that Germany executed an operation hoping it would fail?"
"We allowed Hitler to put a noose around his neck then jump."
"Wilhelm, that is quite a story." Winston was shaking his head.
"We don't want war, Secretary Churchill. The Nazis wanted war not we military. How many times do I have tell you that? Sure we have our grievances, valid grievances, but going to war won't solve them."
"Who else is in your delegation?"
"Von Weichs from the army. You met him in Weimar. Erhard Milch from the Luftwaffe plus a civilian. Konrad Adenauer the former mayor of Cologne."
"Never heard of him."
"He's highly respected in Germany. No friend of the Nazis."
"He sounds like an interesting person."
"He is. I have to go. See you all tomorrow."
"I'm glad you're here, Wilhelm." John said.
"Now you know why I'm cautiously optimistic."
"I remembered you wishing he could be present but you didn't want to have the conference in Bern so I invited him here. He's right about being too ambitious."
"If you have a less ambitious way of taming Germany I'm open for ideas. Anyway I'm not expecting a full agreement. A Memorandum of Intent (MOI) would suffice then we set up workgroups."
"You make it sound so simple, Bob,"
"Tomorrow I shall be brought back to reality. Did I mention that I received my twin-engine licence this morning?" I explained what happened.
"Definitely abuse of power," AVM Freeman commented.
"TRADOC has been good to the 24th and vice versa." Winston was indicating that I look behind me. Wilhelm Canaris was walking towards our table. I stood up to greet him. We exchanged a few greetings and I invited him to join us. "I believe you know everyone apart from AVM Wilfrid Freeman. He heads my Aviation Section. Are you allowed to talk to us?"
"That's why we are here, to talk. Keitel won't like it but I don't care."
"Keitel is here? Leading the delegation?"
"Ja. He is Chef des Wehrmachtamts. Glad you people saw the plan yesterday. Von Manstein's plan was so good that for a moment I thought it might succeed."
"The French Intelligence noticed very early that something was strange. Passengers at Saarbrücken were being told that no trains would be arriving or leaving yesterday evening. If he had used trains from outside the zone it may have succeeded."
"We didn't want to succeed. At first we cursed von Manstein until he started to point out the flaws in the plan."
Wilfrid Freeman asked, "Admiral, are you saying that Germany executed an operation hoping it would fail?"
"We allowed Hitler to put a noose around his neck then jump."
"Wilhelm, that is quite a story." Winston was shaking his head.
"We don't want war, Secretary Churchill. The Nazis wanted war not we military. How many times do I have tell you that? Sure we have our grievances, valid grievances, but going to war won't solve them."
"Who else is in your delegation?"
"Von Weichs from the army. You met him in Weimar. Erhard Milch from the Luftwaffe plus a civilian. Konrad Adenauer the former mayor of Cologne."
"Never heard of him."
"He's highly respected in Germany. No friend of the Nazis."
"He sounds like an interesting person."
"He is. I have to go. See you all tomorrow."
"I'm glad you're here, Wilhelm." John said.
"Now you know why I'm cautiously optimistic."